Depardieu parties with Chechen leader

FRENCH star and newly-registered Russian citizen Gerard Depardieu has visited controversial Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, partying into the night and vowing to make a film about the Muslim region.

The French actor, who was given Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin amid a tax row with Paris, arrived in Chechnya's main city Grozny on a private jet after moving to the central Russia city of Saransk at the weekend.

The actor toured sights in Grozny on Monday after dancing the night away with Chechnya's leaders.

Depardieu visited several museums and the city's giant mosque, where he "was shaken by its grandeur and beauty," the Chechen government website said.

Russia's state-controlled TV channels followed Depardieu as he was hosted by tracksuited Kadyrov in his vast residence.

Entertainment included a children's folk dancing troupe in national costumes and a female singer in a hijab who performed a French hit song Je t'aime.

Footage showed Depardieu dancing late on Sunday, attempting to do the Chechen lezginka (national dance) with a young woman in a coloured scarf, as his host and other officials applauded.

"This is a visit to see my friend," Depardieu was quoted as saying on Monday by the Chechen government press service.

Kadyrov, 36, who has ruled Chechnya with an iron grip since 2007, overseeing vast redevelopment and Islamisation in the war-torn region, is loathed by human rights campaigners who accuse him of ordering kidnappings and extrajudicial killings.

The Chechen leader, who is a prolific photo blogger, also documented the party on his Instagram site.

On Monday, Kadyrov blogged that he presented Depardieu with a five-room apartment in Chechnya and named him an honorary citizen of the republic.

One image shows Kadyrov and Depardieu shaking hands over a table full of food, with the caption announcing the start of a new film project called Heart of a Father, to be filmed in Grozny.

"I want to make a movie here, to show that a big film can be made in Grozny," Depardieu was quoted as saying by the Chechen government's official website.